News

AONE this week released Guiding Principles for the Role of the Nurse Leader in Crisis Management. The guiding principles, developed by the AONE Crisis Management Task Force, with input from members of the American Hospital Association’s Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development, define the role and position of nursing leadership in a crisis, from a mass casualty incident to a technology outage to emerging infectious disease. Task Force participants drew on their experiences from Hurricane Sandy, Ebola treatment and other events to identify lessons learned and the need for nurse leaders to be critical members of the crisis management team. The guiding principles are available on the AONE website.

A study involving 150 inpatient units in 12 hospitals found “significant improvement” in hand hygiene compliance with the use of the Joint Commission’s Targeted Solutions Tool designed to reduce hospital-acquired infections. The study, published in the January issue of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, said researchers tallied 31,600 observations in Memorial Hermann Health System hospitals and found hand hygiene compliance improved from 58.1 percent to 95.6 percent.

The federal government’s meaningful use (MU) program supporting the adoption of health information technology is likely to change significantly in 2016, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt said this week.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2016 NURSE Corps Loan Repayment Program, which offers RNs financial assistance to repay some of their educational loans in exchange for service at a health care facility with a critical shortage of nurses or as nurse faculty at an eligible school.

Having nurse practitioners provide primary care could save money for the Medicare system, says a study published last month in the journal Health Services Research. In a finding that contradicts previous data, the cost to Medicare is lower when nurse practitioners rather than physicians provide primary care, noted an article on the website of the Campaign for Action.